Chapter 228 – But it’s more comfortable here? (2)

The corners of Cale's lips were twitching.

– Human, you are smiling like that again!
"He has that weird smile!"
"He always smiles that way when he is excited."

Raon, Hong, and On all spoke one after another, however, Cale did not listen to them at all.

Swipe. Swipe. Swipe.
Beacrox was wiping the dust off of his white gloves.
Although there was not much dust to start with, he could see the five people kneeling in front of him turning pale each time they heard the noise.

However, none of the five had any injuries or blood stains on them.

"Hohoho."

Ron had just laughed before moving quickly to choke each of them once.

"…I'm itching to fight."

A few of the trees nearby ended up being destroyed by the sword master Hannah who didn't get to do anything. Beacrox was busy wiping the dust that was caused by Hannah's attacks off of his gloves and clothes.

Of course, the five pale people were shaking in fear after seeing Hannah's golden aura and black smoke combination.

Beacrox asked Cale a question after making sure that his outfit was spotless.

"What should we do? Should we torture them?"

Gasp.
The people kneeling gasped.
However, Cale had no intentions of listening to this vicious chef. He felt bad for the five extremely scared bandits.

He too would be scared of going up against the combination of Hannah, Ron, and Beacrox.

Cale leaned on a boulder as he gently smiled and addressed the five people.

"Don't be scared, okay?"

The five of them turned away from Cale and focused on the ground.

"Why are you avoiding my gaze? I'm not a scary person. We can't chat if you don't look at me. Hmm?"

He had Eruhaben use language translation magic on him, so it would be a waste if he didn't get to use it effectively.
The bandits' pupils were shaking as they looked back up at Cale.
They could see the red-haired man who was smiling at them.

'He's the scariest one!'

This group of bandits was skilled as they had survived a year as bandits.
They had seen many strong individuals during that time, however, the people in front of them were stronger than they could ever imagine. The head of this extraordinary group, the red-haired man, made them feel like candles in the middle of a storm.

Cale looked toward the bandit kneeling in the center.

"You."
He pointed at that bandit with his finger.

"Yes sir?"
"Answer my question."

'I don't want to. I really don't want to.
I'm afraid he's going to kill me.'

The bandit was stuttering as he asked back.

"M, me? But there are others as well. This is my first year, so I do not know much!"

The bandit had a look of despair as he saw Cale tilt his head to the side.

"Because I feel like it. Why? You don't like it?"

Cale asked, thinking that he would make someone else do it if this one did not want to do so. There were five people, so he had options.

"No, not at all! Please ask away!"

Cale felt iffy after seeing the kneeling bandit suddenly start bowing toward him, however, he decided to ask anyway as he seemed determined to answer his question.
He had already heard the approximate location of this mountain on the eastern continent from Eruhaben already. That was why he asked something else.

"Tell me 10 bad deeds that your group has committed in the past month."
"…Excuse me?"

'I thought you said it was a question?'
The bandit's pupils were shaking as he looked past Cale to Beacrox, who was putting on a new pair of white gloves.

They were currently by the large stone pillar at the top of the mountain.
A man's desperate voice echoed in the area.

"One! We robbed a small merchant guild's carriage two days ago!"

He looked around before continuing on.

"Two! We stole all the money from travelers going by! There were a lot of travelers this past month! We believe in equality, so we robbed both the poor and the rich of all of their money! I cannot count how many people we have robbed this month! Three! We collected a significant amount of toll money whenever a mid-sized merchant guild traveled through! We pretty much emptied their pockets! We did it, even if the merchant cried!"
"You all deserve to be beaten up. You're even worse than me."

The comment from the woman covered in black scars made the bandit's hands start to shake. However, Cale's gaze made him continue to report the 10 worst deeds.

* * *

"Ten! We destroyed a large-size merchant guild's carriage using logs! We stole the money that was inside and used it to buy booze and fool around!"

The bandit received a new question from Cale once he finished.

"What about human trafficking or the slave trade?"

The bandit responded back right away.

"We do not do those."
"Why?"

'Are we supposed to do that?'

The bandit's pupils shook for a moment before he finally responded back.

"That, that is because our boss is a former slave."

"Oh."
Cale's pupils turned cloudy for a moment.

"That is why we kill any slave traders who we find traveling through the mountain."

The bandit got scared after seeing Cale smile and quickly explained further.

"As for the slaves, we, uh, we let them go or let them join our group. I, I did not report that because that was a good deed and not a bad deed."

Cale looked toward the bandit and casually remarked.

"What an oddly bad group."

'Well, are bandits supposed to be good?'

The bandit could not understand Cale at all. However, Cale's questions did not stop there.

"Tell me everything about this place and your organization."
"…Yes sir."

Clank. clank.
The sound of the sword master clinking her sword in the scabbard made it impossible for the bandit to decline.

The morning sun was beating down on the bandit's back, however, he could not help but feel extremely cold.

Cale listened to all of the information before starting to speak.

"So, what you are saying is that your organization is in control of this mountain which is called Mount Leeb. Your organization's name is the Indomitable Bandits and the leader's nickname is the Indomitable Ruler?"
"Yes sir."
"What terrible naming sense."
"…Excuse me?"

Cale ignored the bandit's shocked expression as he started to think.

Mount Leeb.

That was the name of the mountain with the large stone pillar. He recalled what Eruhaben had told him.

'It is a mountain in the northwest region of the Eastern continent. Even I didn't know about this mountain because I didn't have many reasons to go to the Eastern continent. It's a fairly normal mountain. Lots of merchants and travelers pass by through every so often.'

That evaluation had confused Cale.

'But something is weird.'

Eruhaben had been confused as well.

'This place is not as dangerous as the Forest of Darkness, so why is the stone pillar here? I didn't even see any monsters. In fact, other than these bandits, it is a peaceful mountain. How weird.'

Cale had the same sentiments.
The bandits were able to rule the mountain and people were able to walk through because there were no monsters. However, the Super Rock had placed the stone pillar in order to avoid the monsters of this continent.

'…Was there a change to the Eastern continent after the ancient times?'

That was the only explanation he could come up with.
However, Cale started to get annoyed.

It could not be helped.
He pointed to the pillar behind him.

"So, the reason you touched this stone pillar was because your leader's birthday is coming up and you wanted to create a sculpture as a gift?"

Roooooooll.
The bandit's eyes were rolling as he answered back.

"That is correct. W, we thought only our leader's image should take place at the top of the mountain."
"…I see."

Cale started to smile brightly.
They were trying to create a sculpture for their leader.
He needed to listen to the Super Rock repeatedly ask, 'Are you going to sacrifice yourself?' and come all the way to the Eastern continent for this minor reason. The mental anguish had been worse. He was so worried that his house would be destroyed.

"…I need to completely empty their stash."

The bandit curled up in fear after seeing the anger on Cale's face.

"I am a just person. I can't pretend I didn't see people doing bad things."

'What kind of bullshit is this?'

That was the thought on the bandits' minds. They could see Cale slowly get up as the morning sun shined down on him.

The bandits gulped as Cale pointed behind them. The bandits slowly turned around.

Cale was pointing down below. He was pointing toward their base at the middle of the mountain.

"Lead the way."

The five bandits became teary after hearing Cale's voice.
He walked leisurely behind the bandits as he petted Hong who was in his arms.

– Human, what are we going to do now?

Cale casually answered once he heard Raon's question.

"We need a house in the Eastern continent as well."

The bandits' flinched before they started to walk faster while Raon became excited.

– Is Mount Leeb going to become our house?

Cale did not respond back.

* * *

Mount Leeb.
This decently large organization had built their base at the center of the mountain. High-quality wooden fences were built in front of the base in order to defend against intruders.

However, some people appeared in front of the fence at this moment.
The guard bandits raised their voices.

"Who goes there? Who dares to come to this place?!"

Some of them started to frown as well.

"You traitors! How dare you bring intruders here!"

The five bandits had been getting up early in order to finish the sculpture. Seeing them bringing back intruders instead of finishing the sculpture made them angry.
They were coming back with their heads down as well. They could easily tell that these five bandits had brought the group of people because they were scared.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuu- Buuuuuuuuuuu-

A horn flute sounded as the base became rowdy. This was the first time intruders had come to their base. However, the expressions on the faces of the bandits at the wooden fence were not urgent.

"You think you can take us down with that small number? That's impossible, hahaha!"
"There's three in their group that look old or weak!"

Ron, Eruhaben, and Cale's eyebrows all twitched.

"Or are you coming to surrender to us? Ahahaha!"

The five bandits' faces turned paler and paler as more bandits provoked Cale's group from the fence.

"Kneel if you don't want to die! We will at least let you keep your life if you do that!"

One of the five bandits responded back after hearing a familiar voice mocking Cale's group.

"S, shut up if you don't want to die! You stupid idiots!"

His voice was full of anger and sorrow.

"W, what?"

The bandits who had been happily mocking the group from the fence suddenly became anxious. They became even more anxious after seeing what followed.

"Y, you know nothing. Ugh."

He was crying.
The rookie bandit who had to chat with Cale earlier could not hold back his tears anymore.

Pat, pat.
Cale patted that bandit on the shoulder.

"You have a lot of tears."

The bandit was in disbelief after hearing Cale's comment, but could not stop his tears. He had never met anyone as scary as these people in his life.
He had thought that their leader was the scariest person in the world, but he was wrong.

"Who goes there?!"

At that moment, the bandit heard the voice of the person he used to think was the scariest.
The leader of the bandits showed up at the fence.

Cale turned toward the source of the loud voice.

The leader of the Indomitable Bandits, the Indomitable Ruler.
That was what people called him.

Nobody knew his real name.
However, there was a slave branding mark on his right arm as he was a former slave.

'The leader-nim is extremely strong. Of course, he, umm, does not seem to be as strong as all of you.'

Cale was curious to find out the strength of this former slave and leader of a large bandit organization. However, he started to frown the moment he saw the leader.
Raon started to speak in his mind.

– Human, doesn't that leader remind you of someone?

Yes. He resembled someone they knew.
Cale could immediately tell who that person was.

"Oho."

The leader's eyes sparkled.
He put his large axe on his shoulder as he started to smile.

"Kahahahahaha! I haven't seen punks like this in a while!"

The leader's eyes focused on Hannah and Beacrox. It then stopped on Cale, who seemed to be the boss.

"I can smell it."

'Wow.
He really is similar.
This bastard is just like him.'

Raon's voice echoed in his head the moment Cale had that thought.

– Ah, Bob!

Raon finally thought of the same person. The leader then stepped on one of the ledges of the fence.

"I smell strong people!"

He shouted that before jumping off of the fence.

Boom.

The man was close to 2 meters in height and had a great body that was muscular and filled with scars. He also had brown hair that was shooting out in all directions like a lion's mane.
Raon's voice echoed in Cale's mind once more.

– Toonka! Bob! He's like that idiot!

Cale started to laugh. He could not help it after hearing Raon's comments.
The large man who jumped off the fence started to laugh as well while looking at Cale. To be specific, he was looking at Beacrox and Hannah.

"Hehehehe, you must be strong. I can smell it."

Cale recalled how Toonka had rushed toward Witira after saying the same thing. He had ended up in a mess like a shrimp caught in between two fighting whales because of it.

He had come to the Eastern continent because he was scared that this person who resembled Toonka would destroy his villa. Well, it was partially to learn more about Arm and the Water of Judgment as well.
However, he had been so worried that his house would be destroyed.

"Hahaha."

Cale let out a refreshing laugh.
He knew what was best for people like this leader.

Cale reached his hand out.

Pat.
Cale patted Beacrox on the shoulder.

"Capture him and punch him just three times."

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – Yu Ryeo Han]

[Translator – Anowa]

[Proofreader – Rai_Mayank]